thought i would post the scariest stuff and see if you can sleep after this

The American Phenomenon and
The Bin Laden Phenomenon

What went wrong?
After many years of strenuous massive American campaign to contain Bin
Laden and his organisation the result was the
events of Tuesday the 11th of September. The event has shown that Bin
Laden (if proved to be behind it) has
expanded his abilities to strike at the heart of America and destroy the
most potent symbols of her might. The US on
the other side has shrunk to a state of paralysis on its intelligence,
defence and strategic abilities.
For some reason no body asks the question, why did the containment
effort resulted in bin Laden gaining significance
and strength while America shrinks. The failure to ask this question,
let alone to address it, would logically lay the
grounds for the next stage of further Bin Laden expansion and US
retreat.
The Tuesday events, America and Bin Laden are here seen from different
perspective.

Before And After Tuesday �The Myth Of The Invincible Intelligence

Before Tuesday, we thought that the American intelligence and
information gathering agencies could monitor the movements
of ants in the Amazon forests and the whispers of the Twariq Bedouins in
the Great Sahara. On Tuesday we learnt the truth:
the American Intelligence Services are nothing but a massive lethargic
dinosaur linked to satellites and advanced computer
systems. The events were a shaming embarrassment for the Americans
regardless of who was behind the Tuesday operation.
If bin Laden was the perpetrator, then it is a double embarrassment. The
scandal is compounded by the fact that he, of all
people, was closely monitored together with all his followers. The
result of that awareness and supposedly close scrutiny was
bin Ladin being able to hit at the heart of the US in a sophisticated
operation executed with breath-taking precision. The
American security apparatus was caught napping before and during an
operation carried out by a most monitored foe.

Before And After Tuesday�The Myth Of The Invincible Country
For years, we were told that the US has the capability and the
wherewithal to defend the entire planet from a meteor hurling
from outer space. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, people grew
more convinced of that and the US became, to many, a
haven of peace and security immune to attack.
The embarrassment was compounded on Tuesday for another reason. The
military might failed to protect the Pentagon
although it was attacked some time after two airplanes assaulted on the
Trade Centre. If the �mighty� apparatus was incapable
of protecting the Pentagon, how on earth it could protect the rest of
the US or the US interests throughout the globe?

Before And After Tuesday�The Myth Of The Strategy
We went through life convinced that the US, the jewel of the West, build
its political decision and strategic planning on the
basis of the whole collective picture of reality. It sights the future
through painstaking detailed studies, taking on board all
what can possibly have an impact, socially, culturally and historically.
We thought that the American �revered� institutes and
think tanks have an incredible ability to gather information, to
interpret them correctly then to use them to gain an insight to
the future. Arab thinkers composed wonderful prose admiring the American
mechanism of governance. It was described as a
process of melting minds and energy into one organism then direct all
these thoughts and energies to produce the best possible
decision to serve the nation. After Tuesday all these convictions were
shattered. America was exposed to be nothing more
than a drifting cowboy capable only of pulling a gun swiftly, by reflex.

A Non-American Interpretation
We now face this irrevocable fact: the American way of understanding and
interpreting matters is flawed basically and
profoundly. This becomes an even bigger handicap since the Americans do
not seem to acknowledge their shortcoming. They
insist that the point of failure is that they hesitated in conducting a
military strike that should have carried out earlier.
I have said before that if bin Ladin was behind the operations in Kenya
and Tanzania, then he had spectacularly succeeded in
turning the colossal American machine into a gigantic public relations
company at his disposal proclaiming him the enemy
number one of the US.
This machine went on working for bin Laden for the past few years. The
Tuesday events proved that America�s effort to
contain him has resulted in letting him brake through her defences to
strike at the symbols of her financial and military might.
After Tuesday�s operation, America has resolved to fulfil the last part
of bin Ladin�s strategy: to compel her to wage an
�all-out war against Muslims�. Thus all Muslims will be mobilised
against her militarily after they were mobilised
emotionally.
What is the profound fault in America�s mentality that makes her a tool
of bin Ladin? The fault is two-pronged. The first is
that she failed to comprehend the phenomenon, and the second is that
America has delved so deep into arrogance and conceit
that she cannot acknowledge its mistakes and attempt to put the
phenomenon in its right context. To understand bin Ladin�s
phenomenon is to understand how the US became his public relation firm.

Attempting To Understand Bin Ladin
Bin Ladin is a good warrior, faithful to his cause and willing to
sacrifice self and property for it. He can plan and execute
operations against his enemies. All this is true. But that alone does
not explain his success. The truth is that the reality of the
situation in which he emerged, together with all the historical, social
and political circumstances, contains the ingredients that
makes him the unique tool that naturally and automatically turn these
ingredient into a complete enterprise.

1st. ingredient: America is hated
It is ironic that the people in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia despise
their regimes main ally, the US, even more than the hate
towards the US felt by the Palestinians. It may be a surprise to the
readers to know that the first reaction to the events of
Tuesday was a frantic exchange of congratulatory text massages through
mobile phones. People then went on killing sheep
and inviting friends for big feasts. America does not know of this
seething hatred towards her in the region in general and in
the Kingdom in particular. Those who put this in the context of the
loathing felt towards superpowers are very much
mistaken. Muslims look upon the US from various angles and each glance
is enough to precipitate strategic hatred. There is
the Palestinian question, for instance. They see America with its might
as a stooge of Israel and not the other way around.
This feeling was exasperated by the current intifada. The images of
Palestinian sufferings made the tragedy in Palestine a
priority for many sectors of the society. The second cause of hatred is
America�s intransigence towards sanctions against Iraq
and her continued efforts to starve the Iraqis and kill and maim their
children with flimsy excuses. It is unwise to
underestimate the feelings of a Muslim hearing American secretary of
state Madeline Albright describing the death of
hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children as �a price worth paying.� The
third cause is the US insistence at maintaining military
presence in the Arab Peninsula; a place of special sacredness to all
Muslims. This insistence together with the use of Arabia as
launching pad for attacks against Iraq is viewed as a direct challenge
or an insult to their sensibilities. The fourth is unique to
the people of the Kingdom: they believe that the Americans are
conspiring, with the local rulers, to rob them of their assets,
mainly oil, and mortgage those assets to western and American banks.
That is the peoples way of interpreting the fact that the
national debt of the Kingdom is running currently $200 bn. These issues
are not some old matters that passed. They are alive
and continuing and escalating, thus feeding hatred by the day.

2nd ingredient: a growing sense of Islamic identity
The past two decades witnessed significant shifts in Islamic tendencies.
Muslims are becoming more jealous of their identity
and are more inclined to view life through Islamic perspective. A
plethora of events and circumstances enhanced these
changes and gave them a distinct political flavour. Among these events
is the jihad in Afghanistan and the defeat of the Soviet
Union there. There is also the eruption of the first and second
intifadas in Palestine, the jihad in Chechnya and the defeat of
Israel at the hands of Hizbulla in South Lebanon. There were also more
and more significant intellectual, cultural and social
changes.

3rd ingredient: the failure of political leaderships
Facing the American omnipotence there exist Muslim political
leaderships, which are viewed by their people as traitors
disloyal to their religion and their nations and are incapable of
extracting themselves from the bosom of America. This
perceived treason enhanced the hate of America and made people
disenchanted and frustrated with their leadership. This
despair made people look for guidance and leadership outside the
established political framework. This explains the increasing
popularity of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other organisations.

4th ingredient: bin Ladin�s personality
The masses are longing for a leader who could fight back. Someone with
clean record, good history in combat, strong sense
of duty whose political platform is based on hatred towards America. No
one in the regions fits the bill like bin Ladin whose
personal record in Afghanistan gave him all these credentials. There was
a man who forsook a life of luxury and put self and
property in the service of a cause he sincerely believed in. He fought
in the far Muslim land of Afghanistan by choice, then
decided to fight the American although it meant a life of destitution,
hunted from one country to another.

5th ingredient: an American contribution
All the factors mentioned above were not sufficient to create the
phenomenon we are addressing. The American input is a
vital ingredient. No one who lays claim to harming the US and thus
quenching the public thirst for hurting her can satisfy the
public without an American declaration that that person has actually
hurt her. This certificate was issued by the US in
September 1998. Clinton took the podium to announce the name of bin
Ladin over and over again declaring that he has
ordered the launch of substantial missile attacks targeting him. The
public received the declaration from the highest authority
in the US and were convinced that bin Ladin is the awaited saviour.
Afterwards, the American political, media and economic
machines went on treating bin Ladin as the most significant danger
facing the US.
After the bombings in Nairobi and Darussalam there was serious debate
about the legitimacy of attacking targets in these two
cities with many civilian deaths. The debate was won by bin Ladin after
the American unleashed their attacks against Sudan
and Afghanistan. Since then, bin Ladin went on setting the agenda and
reaping the fruits of the American toil. They were
fulfilling bin Ladin�s designs.

America To Fulfil Another Phase In Bin Ladin�s Scheme
The anticipated American reaction to the New York and Washington attacks
will comply completely with what bin Ladin
wants. Bin Ladin believes that the final outcome of events is an all-out
confrontation with the US. He could not bring about
this final show down by propaganda or repeated calls for Jihad. It will
not come about by declaration of war from a Muslim
country. He knows very well that America could be easily lured into such
confrontation. A bigger attack than that of Nairobi
and Darussalam will make the US respond more aggressively with vaster
capabilities. She will mobilise armies and call upon
allies to participate.
The military strike itself can be either limited, which will enhance bin
Ladin�s position, or it could be a whole destruction of
Afghanistan, which will definitely destabilise the region and cause the
collapse of many regimes. Or it could be a long lasting
ground operation with a repeat of the Soviet-Afghan fiasco a
confrontation Bin Laden has always dreamed of. America will
taste the direct defeat suffered by the Soviets who were harsher and
more willing to use forbidden weapons ad to loose
fighters.
The US should not underestimate the great psychological impact of those
symbolic buildings collapsing on TV screens in
destroying the American aura. The Readiness, and willingness, of bin
Ladin supporters now to act against America or the
local regimes is many folds bigger than before.
An additional point of big importance in this context is the
vulnerability of the western communities because of their political
nature. This vulnerability makes intelligence and military solutions
very much temporary measures.
The huge western political machine is not in the mode of taking this
perspective on board in dealing with events, yet this
message must be conveyed.
If this matter is to be addressed properly then the ingredients of this
phenomenon should be dealt with in their political, social
and cultural perspective.

-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
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